The food and injera at Zeni Ethiopian are absolutely DELICIOUS! Highly recommend this place, the…read morefood is so tasty, the atmosphere is cute and cozy and the staff are some of the nicest people. I especially loved the ground beef and the lentils from our veggie and meat order. Everything was flavorful and the injera was heavenly. My friend and I were so caught up eating and chatting that we didn't realize they had actually been closed for almost half an hour! The staff were incredibly kind and courteous, they just continued cleaning around us without making us feel rushed or asking us to leave. That level of hospitality really stood out to me. I'll definitely be coming back.

First time trying Ethiopian food and everything was packed with flavor, and I loved eating with…read moreinjera, it made the whole experience feel so authentic. Every bite was delicious, and the portions were great for sharing. I also tried Ethiopian coffee for the first time, and wow... it was so good! Rich, smooth, and definitely worth ordering if you've never had it before, ended it with their delicious pastry. Great food, friendly service, and such a unique dining experience. I'll definitely be back!

Sentayhu Is very sweet and caring to her customers! Food is amazing and will try again. her other…read moreemployees are very sweet as well!

Our family of four went on a Friday night for dinner. The waitress was super friendly, and we…read moreenjoyed our veggie and meat combo very much. The flavors were wonderful, and sharing a meal with family this way was fun!

Modern vibes with traditional touches characterize this cozy restaurant. First time experiencing…read moreEthiopian cuisine, so our party of 2 put ourselves in the capable hands of our friendly server Liya! She did *not* steer us wrong in suggesting the Ethiopian Spiced Tea (unsweetened black tea leaves brewed with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, served hot or iced) and the following combination platters-- Two Meat Stew Items: Doro (chicken drumstick) Key Wot Stew (mildly spiced, slow-cooked in red sauce with caramelized onions, garlic, ginger, cardamom, and berbere--spiced chili powder) Asa (white fish) Alicha Stew (non-spicy, slow-cooked mild sauce base with caramelized onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, jalapeño peppers, basil, and cumin) Four Vegetarian Sampler: Atakilt (cabbage, carrots, and potatoes sautéed with onions, turmeric, tomatoes, garlic, & ginger) Miser (red lentils) Key Wot Shiro (roasted chickpea flower simmered with basil and jalapeños) Key Wot Kik (split peas) Alicha

Came shortly after evening opening time on a Wednesday night. No wait and not crowded. Ambiance is…read morebeautiful. Interior is decorated well and the vibes are immaculate with soft, soothing music. Service was 5/5. Liya was helpful with recommendations and super friendly! We shared the Ethiopian spiced tea, sambusa (spiced chicken), and LeYou Special. Ethiopian spiced tea was good and piping hot, it also came with honey and sugar which I appreciated. Sambusas were fantastic - the spiced chicken was flavorful, and puff pastry had a light fluffy crispy texture. LeYou Special was pretty good. My favorites were the fish, chicken, cabbage, and lentils. I do wish it were a bit hotter in temperature as many of them were lukewarm, especially the fish. For dessert we shared the brownie sundae and baklava. Both were pretty small. Not mindblowing but tasty sweet treats to satisfy the sweet tooth if you don't want to go elsewhere for dessert. Glad I got to try LeYou!

Loved the food, and the prices were from 10 years ago... $5.50 for a glass of red wine! wow. I had…read morea mild lamb dish and gomen wat - both were delicious! The spice was mild, as I had requested, but still very flavorful. generous portions, and lots of injera to accompany. The family was very friendly and the owner checked on us a few times. We are definitely going back to this lovely, family owned restaurant!

Very friendly service, tasty food, and generous portions. I've been to many of the other East…read moreAfrican restaurants in San Jose, and many have declined in quality, become much more expensive, or just closed. I'm happy to have found the Lunch Box!

I like bread. And I like bread even more when they're stuffed with other stuff. Did this place meet…read moremy standards? Hmmm somewhat. LOCATION: So the store is part of a shared kitchen located in a commercial park. I saw a drug deal go down right in front of me. And by drug deal, I actually mean a Door Dasher picking up his precious cargo. But who knows...there might be drugs hidden in his Door Dash bag instead of food. ORDERING: It is online only. So order before you get there. Or be like me and wait 10-15 minutes for your food at the spot. At least they have comfortable chairs. 10/10. Would smash again. There are 3 different meat-filled sambusas on the menu and I ordered 1 of each type. Oh yeah, the lady running the store gave me an extra sambusa for me having to wait. Very nice of her. Great service. BEEF (Wannabeef): There's seasoned ground beef and bean in the filling. HOWEVER!...the beans almost completely overpowers the taste of the beef. Overall, I liked this, but I would prefer a stronger beef flavor. CHICKEN (Flustercluck, but I call it clusterfuck): There's roasted chicken, corn, and red peppers in the filling. I like the texture of the chicken, but the filling flavor was kinda bland. SHRIMP (Aquatarian): Cot' damn. For only $4.25, this thing packed full of shrimp. By itself, the shrimp has a slightly sweet, caramelized taste, but is way too salty. The acid from the califa or kandake sauce complements this sambusa by balancing out the saltiness. BREAD: I like bread so much that I dedicated a section just for it. The outside was fried and the inside was soft, slightly chewy, and moist. It was very thin. THE 3 SAUCES: (Btw, they're 50 cents a piece. I postponed laundry day so I could use my quarters to pay for the sauces.) CALIFA SAUCE - Similar to Asian sweet and sour sauce, but more watery and more acidic. Has some heat to it. Califa is Arabic for "religious leader" or maybe "king". (That's right...you also get random knowledge in this food review. You're welcome.) KANDAKE SAUCE - I think Kandake means "queen". And just like most women, this sauce is hard to describe and understand. Just kidding #feminism. This is a watery, orange-colored sauce that vinegary and salty. There's some herbs in here. I want to guess dried parsley/oregano, dried peppers, and sumac. ISIS SAUCE - Just by writing about this sauce, I risk getting wire-tapped by the Feds. But I'm doing it for the Yelpers (...and the ratchets). I got ch'yall. This is similar to Greek Tzatziki sauce. It's a white sauce with tart yogurt as the base. I'm gonna guess that Isis means "princess" just to keep with the theme here. Or maybe it's a reference to Egyptian Goddess Isis.

This is absolutely my goto Ethiopian restaurant (there are 5 within about a mile of my house)…read more Every time I ask a can driver on my way to the airport, they have ALL said Mudai. Service is friendly and attentive, you can see that the owner has been using the profits to upgrade the interior. They have ethiopian beers and a classic menu executed very well. No charge for more enjira. Great meat and veg options.

3.5 stars. Delicious Ethiopian platter. This was shared between our party of 4. It also came with…read moreadditional injera (we also dug into the sauce soaked injera under the food, yum!). I think it would have been plenty even if we had one more adult. The restaurant space is clean, plenty of seating, and street parking was not too hard to find. Service could be a little more attentive, but I would say still worth the visit.

Everything came together for an enjoyable dining experience. The restaurant had a comfortable…read moresetting, and I appreciated the overall service. I'd gladly visit again. Add a few words about your meal or the reason for your visit.

Restaurant It is…read moreinside a non descript strip mall. I traveled here from Fairfield. There are 8 booths and 10 sets of tables and 3 areas where it appears you would experience the authentic ethiopion coffee service. They were in the back preparing an order when we arrived so we waited short of 5 minutes for them to know we were there. When the waiter arrives she warmly greeted us and instructed us to sit anywhere. She quickly returned and provided us menus. Shortly thereafter our order was placed and we were provided water. We ordered our favorite no matter what ethiopian restaurant we go to and that is Gored gored Veggie platter Sambusas, the lentils inside were a bit hard and there wasn't much seasoning. I also ordered a cup of tea as I still had a cough from a cold Food The cabbage and greens were luke warm. The lentils were somewhat hot. The salad was fine and the gored gored was delicious. I wish their injera had more of a sour taste too it but overall food was good, service was good. I give them a 4 star review. Minus 1 point for the lukewarm food.

Here is my two cents on the quality quantity and price of my order... it was delivered by GrubHub…read morein a timely matter. what I don't like about GrubHub is you cannot just add a tip you have to talk to customer service.. which is a stupid and ridiculous. hoop. You have to jump through to give the driver extra money... Unto the lunchbox food If you never had Ethiopian food, it's not meant or utensils .. they give you their soft bread and you dip it in sauce and you add the items of what you're going to eat. It is more of a communal situation .. I found the food to be quite good though not as big of a portion as I would like.. I did ask for it to be extra hot and spicy And while it was the most spiciest and hottest hot sauce, I have ever tasted almost in my life . It was good, but you had to drink a beer or milk to cool your mouth off. If you're looking for something spicy, this is the place beware .

I was craving Ethiopian food and was looking for a place that was open during COVID-19. Usually I…read morestick with Zeni, but I wasn't close to the area. Found this place and was excited to order their Meat Combo which was $18 and came with Doro Wot, Ye Begin Wot, and Kitfo (beef), and a veggie entrée of choice along with some Injera bread. I ordered the Kitfo to be raw and spicy with my choice of vegetarian entree to be lentils. The total came out to about $25 with tax and everything. When I took the food out of the package. I got a tiny portion of one of their stews in two small sections in the to-go box which honestly both tasted the same despite them listing two different wots/stews, and the Kitfo seemed to be in the main part of my box and it WAS FULLY COOKED and DRENCHED IN SALT AND OIL. Even though I ordered the kitfo to not be cooked, which is an option, they still managed to cook it by dumping a gallon of hot oil over it (see picture). 70% of the dish was old oil rather than food. I got no vegetarian entrée as promised and the Kitfo was WAY oversalted and not edible. The two stews were okay, but besides this I felt cheated. I would not recommend anyone order pickup or delivery from this place. You have many other options around you as Ethiopian restaurants have increased in the area. The one review that comes before mine was not factored into the review of this place and is obviously the owner or one of the employees writing the review. There is only one review from that person ever in their Yelp history, and it is obviously promoting this business. Don't be fooled. Pictures are worth a thousand words.